Welcome back, OOTOB readers.  With all the holidays over, the kids are back in school and I’m itching to blog regularly again!

Since so many interesting things have piled up over the past month, I decided to do another blog roundup for my first post back.

HAPPY 21ST ANNIVERSARY TO US

Firstly, happy anniversary to me and my wonderful husband (as one favorite commenter here calls him, Mr. Ruchi.  We love that).  We married 21 years ago October 18th on an absolutely magnificent fall day.  I am supremely grateful for him and actually, he’s the support behind this blog and all the things I love to do.  For my anniversary gift, I asked him for another year of being a great husband (together: AWW!).  Don’t worry.  I’m still angling for a trip to Florida too.  I’m not THAT holy.

WHY RELIGIOUS JEWS ARE RACIST?

Next up, I found this really interesting piece about how people with Aspergers view the rest of us (nicknamed NTs, for “neurotypicals”).  It really got me thinking about Jews who are racist, and especially why more religious Jews might be more racist.  Sometimes racism is a response to discrimination, which is a result of being different – especially obviously different, as religious people are. Sometimes it’s a defense mechanism, to be okay with your different-ness.  Tell me what you think.

POST-PARTUM PRACTICES

This is something I’ve long thought about.  Why are women in America supposed to just bounce  back after birth?  The way I grew up, and even more so in more Chassidic families, a woman who gives birth is called a “kimpiturin” (that’s Yiddish) for six weeks, and is supposed to pamper herself and lay low and let others take care of her as much as possible.  To be honest, I kind of chafed at this after awhile since I had easy births and was raring to go – but in retrospect, it’s a great invention, and a very necessary one.  In the non-Orthodox world I see none of this.  Women are out shopping and carpooling and getting dressed up so soon after birth (forget about going back to work).  Living in Israel, I saw a much greater respect for the post-partum state than here in America.  Why is this an Orthodox (and more Chassidic) thing?  I have no idea.  But there’s a definite difference.

HOW TO USE YOUR SMARTPHONE ON SHABBOS

This is just one big “oy” and falls into the same conceptual category as kosher bacos, kosher-for-Passover Cheerios, and kosher cheeseburgers (fake cheese, fake meat, or both).  It’s a Shabbos app so you can use your smartphone on Shabbos.  I’m going to artfully dodge the actual halachic issue, and go with the assumption that it’s technically “kosher” according to Jewish law.  I have found, over and over again, that non-Orthodox people are usually more sensitive to “kosher loopholes” than the Orthodox.  To be sure, there’s a huge outrage among the Orthodox community about this app, since it’s something new and, well, outrageous, and because the technology piece of Shabbos makes Shabbos observance more contemporary than ever.  Everyone who’s anyone is recommending a tech-Shabbat.  But I’ve found that in the less-obvious areas, especially food issues, non-Orthodox people are more likely to detect the problematic mindset in finding legal loopholes.

One could argue that those who live bound by halacha deserve and should celebrate the areas that they can find loopholes in – “easy for you to say” sort of thing, to the non-Orthodox.  Others feel that Judaism is a relationship, an attitude, and that looking for loopholes in relationships does not a good relationship make.  I myself adopt both attitudes, depending on the issue.  I’m not a fan of the kosher cheeseburger thing, for example.  But that’s for me.  For others it’s important to eat what they can find permissibly, and it will make it easier for them to keep kosher properly in the long run.

So that’s all for now, folks.  See you in the comment section!